Thursday, October 1, 2026
As thousands of spectators descend on Shinnecock Hills Golf Club for the 2026 U.S. Open next week, one of the people helping make the championship possible has roots much closer to home.
John Ryan Celiberti, a Lynbrook native and the assistant director of the United States Golf Association’s championship team, has spent the past two years preparing for one of golf’s most prestigious events. For Celiberti, however, the assignment is more than just another stop in his career. It’s a chance to help stage a championship on a course he admired as a child.
“It’s a full-circle moment,” Celiberti said.
Since joining the USGA in 2019, Celiberti, 29, has worked his way up from intern to a key member of the championship operations team. His responsibilities include transportation planning, parking operations, public safety coordination and working with local agencies to ensure the tournament runs smoothly. The Open is expected to draw up to 40,000 spectators each day, and relies on thousands of volunteers, vendors and contractors.
For the past two years, Celiberti has been based on Long Island’s East End, working with Southampton town officials, emergency services, transportation agencies and community stakeholders as preparations intensified for the tournament.
But long before he was helping to coordinate a U.S. Open, Celiberti was a young golfer growing up in Lynbrook. A graduate of St. Raymond School and Kellenberg High School, he spent much of his childhood playing sports, particularly basketball and golf. His developed a passion for golf on family outings at local courses, including Bay Park Golf Course, as well as annual trips to Sunny Hill Resort in Greenville, Upstate New York.
“My dad played golf with me growing up, and he’s the reason I play golf as much as I do,” Celiberti said. “Growing up, that’s how I got into it.”
Celiberti played golf at Kellenberg and later attended Butler University in Indiana, where he earned a marketing degree. He took on internships across the sports industry, including with the Metropolitan PGA and the Tiger Woods Foundation, seeking a way to combine his love of sports with a career.
“I knew I wanted to work in golf,” he said. “I was never good enough to play professionally, but I wanted to be around it.”
His former Catholic Youth Organization basketball coaches, Chris Campbell and Richard Hayes, said the qualities that led Celiberti to success today were visible years ago on the court. Campbell coached him for six years in the St. Raymond’s CYO program, and remembers his determination, dependability and commitment to his teammates.
“When he put his head to something, nobody got in his way,” Campbell recalled. “He was a great teammate. It wasn’t about him, but how they worked together.”
“This job was not given to him,” Campbell added. “He found this passion, and through his own determination, got to where he is today.”
Hayes, who has known Celiberti since he was a child, remembers seeing his love for golf develop at a young age. “He loved the game of golf as far back as I can remember,” Hayes said. “I’ve never known John Ryan to put his mind to something and not accomplish it.”
During annual golf trips with their families, he watched Celiberti immerse himself in the game, not only playing but also developing an appreciation for its traditions and history.
As it happens, Hayes and Campbell will both volunteer at the Open. “Now John Ryan is my boss for the Shinnecock tournament,” Hayes said with a laugh.
Both men said the values Celiberti displays today — teamwork, accountability, integrity and respect — were evident throughout his childhood, and reflect the influence of his family and the close-knit community in which he was raised.
Celiberti said those roots remain important to him despite a career that has taken him across the country. Since joining the USGA, he has relocated several times, including assignments in California and North Carolina, before returning to Long Island. After the Open, he expects to begin preparing for future championships, including the 2028 U.S. Open in Mamaroneck.
But Lynbrook will always be his home. “The values of Lynbrook are still here and ingrained in me,” he said, “and it’s something I will always cherish.”
As championship week arrives, Celiberti’s family, friends and former coaches will be among those watching from the gallery — a reminder of how far a young golfer from Lynbrook has come.
